Tensile Strength of Hygrothermally Conditioned Carbon/Epoxy Composites with Voids

The effects of voids on the longitude tensile strength and modulus of T300/914 laminates that exposed to room temperature, hygrothermal and drying environment was discussed in this paper. The experimental results reveal that the saturated moisture content and the rate of water uptake increase with porosity increasing from 0.33% to 1.5%, which proves that voids facilitate moisture absorption. The tensile strength of non-aged, aged and drying specimens were characterized and analyzed. Compared to non-aged specimens, a relatively small reduction in the tensile strength with the increasing porosity; the tensile modulus of aged specimens basically unchanged. For the same porosity, the tensile strength of drying specimens is higher than that of non-aged specimens for the same porosity. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of International Materials Science Society.